Unemployment rates rise in November for Collier, Lee

Collier and Lee counties' unemployment rate ticked up in November, defying hopes that hiring for the holidays and the upcoming tourist season would put more people back to work.

Collier County's jobless rate rose to 12.4 percent, or almost 18,000 jobless, up slightly from 12.3 percent in October and one year ago, according to figures reported Friday by the state Agency for Workforce Innovation.

In Lee County, the unemployment rate increased to 13.3 percent, or more than 36,000 people, up from 12.9 percent in October but down from 13.4 percent a year ago.

The rates in both Lee and Collier are higher than the statewide November unemployment rate of 12 percent or more than 1.1 million people.

Gov.-elect Rick Scott called the 12 percent rate "inexcusable and further proof that reform is needed.

"We need to put jobs first and make sure all government expenditures are justified," Scott said Friday. "I am committed to getting Florida back to work by making Florida the best place to do business."

Florida's unemployment rate stood at 11.9 percent in October, and the bleak November figures were far worse than the national unemployment average of 9.8 percent.

Hendry County continued to have the highest unemployment with 17.9 percent of its work force idled.

State economists predicted double-digit unemployment would continue in Florida until sometime during the fiscal year that begins on July 1, 2012.

"We're seeing them expanding, cautiously, maybe one job here and one job there, but they are hiring," said Dan Wall, director of business development at Southwest Florida Works, a nonprofit career training center.

Florida's non-agricultural employment grew by 300 jobs from October to November; the state has added 36,200 jobs since last November, according to state figures.

In November, though, employers did not hire quickly enough to absorb increased numbers of unemployed workers coming back to the job market after having given up finding a job, Wall said.

The unemployment rate includes only people actively looking for work; the real unemployment rate could be 5 or 10 percentage points higher, he said.

Wall said he expects the December unemployment figures to show the effects of holiday and tourist season hiring.

"I'm surprised we haven't seen it already," Wall said.

Rather than hiring in anticipation of an upswing in seasonal business, as employers traditionally have done, they seem to be waiting to see the upswing before adding workers, Wall said.

The still-shaky economy has left employers with little wiggle room to hire workers until they are absolutely needed, Economic Development Council of Collier County Director Tammie Nemecek said.

"People are probably waiting until the very last minute to do hiring," she said.

The Economic Development Council plans three training sessions in the coming year to pair up people looking for a job with local manufacturers looking for new hires, Nemecek said.

Three employers hired 10 new employees who went through the pilot program this year, she said.

It might be a small number compared to the thousands out of work, but it's no small matter to the 10 new workers, she said.

"That's 10 more people that are back to work and are going to have a good Christmas," Nemecek said.

She said it is important that when jobs do recover in Collier County, the economy is more diverse and so more resistant to the next economic downturn.

Lee County economic development leader are chanting the same diversification mantra as they look to create new jobs.

In the past two years, the Lee County Economic Development Office has worked with 17 companies to either expand or relocate to Lee County, pledging to create almost 2,000 new jobs in the next three to five years, marketing director Jennifer Berg said.

Berg calls the new jobs will come in "high wage, high value industries" such as pharmaceuticals and renewable energy.

They would still fall short of bridging the November gap between jobs and the jobless.

"We are doing everything we can to support job creation but understand there are a lot of people our of work," Berg said.

(The Associated Press and Staff Writer Laura Layden contributed to this report.)